Island Life

Tromso's stunning new cathedral looks across to the small city itself which was reached by crossing a graceful bridge. The Polar Museet had some excellent displays on the history of life over the last few hundred years in these once remote places. The story of Roald Amundsen's polar explorations including by airship were well documented and the story of Fridtjof Nansen and a colleague who were marooned in 1895 on the pack ice and waited 9 months over winter to escape after a total of 15 months of isolation was somewhat humbling.
From Tromso (which took some leaving as the major roads are in tunnels with poorly signposted roundabouts underground where of course the sat nav was itself lost) I headed west to catch a ferry across to Skenja and a harbour side park up in Husoy for £10 including hook up. In the village which sits encircled by high mountains there was a travelling summer festival brought in on a ship that had moored up which was well attended.
I explored the rest of the island which has many isolated villages linked by passes and tunnels (but most easily for locals by boat)  including Torsken with its beautiful wooden church and parked beneath Kvaenen on the coast with a large shoal of fish being hunted offshore by a pod of dolphins. The Anderdalen National park lay to the east and with plenty of daylight left on a fine evening I decided to tackle the 3,300' top reached by a long ascent through birch wood and then large expanses of boulders and scree before a final steep scramble to the jagged ridge. From the top this fell away dramatically to the fjords below and the panoramic views were the best of the trip so far. I stayed an hour or so before descending to the comforts of the van for a good night's sleep.

After returning to the mainland at Finnsnes I followed the coast road round to Harstad on Hinnoya reached by another bridge and found a place to stop on the Elgsnes peninsular.
Today has seen an exploration of Andoya one of the Vesteralen Islands and I am currently at the top end of another - the island of Langoya  at Sto on a small site that offers peace and quiet in a very special setting. The Lofoten Islands will fill the next few days before a circuit back to Narvik - if you enjoy the photos at this link it is possible to get a slideshow by clicking the'v' to the right of  the 'add photos' box and selecting the slideshow option.
Equally my whereabouts at this link are updated daily whether or not I post on the blog.